Good news, Adam McKay fans. His new HBO drama series about a dysfunctional family who curses a lot will fill all your The Big Short needs. McKay seems to have found himself a niche with high-powered corporate drama, and he continues that with Succession, which follows a cutthroat, dysfunctional American family that happens to own the biggest media company in the world. And the latest Succession trailer has something even better than Brian Coxcursing a mile a minute: it has the premiere date.

Several years ago we reported on a Black List script by Oren Uziel called The Kitchen Sink, a horror-sci-fi-comedy mashup that combined vampires, zombies, and aliens. Jonah Hill was originally set to direct, and then Robbie Pickering. A promising cast (including Bob Odenkirk and Patton Oswalt) was assembled, and then the updates slowed down and eventually the project fell off our radar completely.

But it’s back now, in finished form under a new title: Freaks of Nature. And it’s hitting theaters in just two weeks, so Sony has finally put out a first trailer. Nicholas Braun, Mackenzie Davis, Josh Fadem, Ed Westwick, Vanessa Hudgens, Joan Cusack, Keegan-Michael Key, and Denis Leary star. Watch the Freaks of Nature red-band trailer after the jump. Read More »

Mad Men and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows star Jared Harris has just been cast in Gil Kenan‘s upcoming remake of Poltergeist. That piece of information has two deeper layers of meaning. First, it’s a good week to be Jared Harris. The actor was also just cast in Guy Ritchie’s The Man of U.N.C.L.E. Second, Harris is playing the host of a fictional TV show called Haunted House Cleaners, which shows a pretty major deviation from Tobe Hooper’s original film.

Nicholas Braun, who appeared in Red State, is also in talks to join the film along with co-star of The Following, Kyle Catlett. Rosemarie DeWitt and Sam Rockwell will star.

Up until now, odds are Robbie Pickering‘s film Kitchen Sinkhasn’t been on your radar. That’s about to change. The genre mashup written by Oren Uziel (who Sony also hired to writeMen in Black 4 and22 Jump Street 2) placed on The Black List, and was almost the directorial debut of Jonah Hill before Pickering (Natural Selection) came on board to direct. The movie is about to start filming with a cast that includes Nicholas Braun, Mackenzie Davis, Joan Cusack, Vanessa Hudgens and Denis Leary. Plus, three more names have just joined the cast. They are comedic everyman Ian Roberts, pop culture genius Patton Oswalt and Breaking Bad‘s Bob Odenkirk.

Oh, right, Kitchen Sink is a film about a world where vampires, humans and zombies all live together and must band together to stop an alien invasion. Read More »

Today brings two minor updates on Kevin Smith‘s Hit Somebody. The first is from Nicholas Braun, the actor who’ll eventually star in the film as a hockey enforcer who dreams of scoring just one goal. We spoke to Braun on the set of his latest movie, Dylan Kidd’s Get A Job, and he said the version of the script he read is Kevin Smith’s “finest” work and a “love letter to hockey” complete with flashbacks to the origins of the sport.

Also, Smith was recently on Sirius XM’s The Opie and Anthony Show and gave more information on a supporting character comedian Jim Norton will play in the film, a goalie based on hockey legend Glenn Hall. Read more after the jump. Read More »

Denzel Washington has reportedly been offered the lead role in the English-language remake of The Secret in Their Eyes, which is being helmed by Billy Ray (Shattered Glass). The original Argentinian version, by director Juan José Campanella, was a critical success that won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Picture in 2010. In other words, no wonder someone in Hollywood’s decided to try and make it all over again.

The dramatic thriller centers around a retired criminal court investigator turned would-be novelist who’s struggling to get over a murder case and a romance that have haunted him for decades. Campanella’s film won raves for its unpredictable plotting, impressive camerawork, and excellent performances. I don’t think the American version sounds bad, so much as just pointless — but if it has to get remade, I suppose there are worse choices than Ray and Washington. [First Showing]

After the jump, Will Forte joins Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn in Neighborhood Watch, and Isla Fisher lands magician heist flick Now You See Me.

As much as I enjoyed Submarine, I’m thrilled to see that director Richard Ayoade hasn’t decided to forsake his acting career completely. Ayoade is probably best known for his turn as painfully awkward computer tech Moss in the Brit comedy series The IT Crowd, where he proves to be a warm, uniquely hilarious presence from episode to episode. Now Ayoade is set to bring his brand of funny to the States in Akiva Schaffer‘s sci-fi action comedy Neighborhood Watch, where he’ll star alongside Vince Vaughn, Jonah Hill, Ben Stiller, Rosemarie DeWitt, and Nicholas Braun. More details after the jump.

Breakout star Melissa McCarthy has signed up for ID Theft, which will team her with the ubiquitous but charming Jason Bateman. As suggested by the title, the comedy follows a man who becomes the target of identity theft. Bateman will play the victim, and McCarthy the thief. McCarthy’s role was originally written for a man, but Bateman (who’s also producing) pushed to cast McCarthy in the part after seeing her inspired, scene-stealing performance in Bridesmaids.

Shooting for ID Theft will begin April 2012, at the start of McCarthy’s hiatus from Mike & Molly. The script was originally written by Steve Conrad (The Pursuit of Happyness), and is currently in rewrites with Craig Mazin (The Hangover Part II). [Deadline]

After the jump, new gigs for Natalie Portman and Parks & Recreation lovebirds Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally.

Kevin Smith and hockey go together like, well, Kevin Smith and New Jersey. The filmmaker is a huge fan of the sport and works it into his films whenever he can, such as in the first Clerks and in Zack and Miri Make a Porno. Once Smith has finished promoting and showing off his latest film, Red State, he’ll write and direct one more movie before retiring and it’s fitting that his final film will be a hockey movie. It’s called Hit Somebody and is based on the song of the same name by Warren Zevon and Mitch Albom. It’ll star Nicholas Braun as Buddy McCracken, a tough hockey player who just wants to score one goal in a game. Other hockey players will be played by Braun’s Red State co-stars Kyle Gallner and Michael Angarano while his coach, Blue Jay Jennings, will – most likely – be played by John Goodman.

Smith posted a scene from the current draft of the script that features Coach Jennings with a much younger version of Buddy. You can read it after the jump. Read More »